Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Bone Contract Hall

The question hangs in the air.

Aiden doesn’t answer right away. He lowers his chopsticks, his gaze drifting to the cracked walls, the dim lantern light, the three brothers sitting across from him. Right… what was he going to do now that he had this place?

He’d already crossed the line. He had taken a contract. Killed a sect master. And the money from that job alone had been worth more than months of scraping by.

If he was being honest with himself, he didn’t hate it.

After a moment, Aiden speaks calmly. “Me? I run an assassin guild.”

The chopsticks freeze midair.

“…What?” Reth mutters.

“For now,” Aiden continues, unfazed, “I only have two capable people.”

The room goes quiet.

Kain’s eyes slowly widen as something clicks in his mind. He swallows. “Boss… that assassination. The sect leader who died last night.”

Aiden looks at him, expression cool, almost indifferent.

“Yes.”

The word is simple. Final.

The brothers exchange looks, their earlier excitement replaced with something heavier, fear mixed with awe. The man sitting in front of them isn’t just strong.

He’s dangerous.

Aiden picks up his chopsticks again and keeps eating, as if he hadn’t just shattered their understanding of who he was.

After that, Aiden returns to his room.

The house is quiet now, the earlier tension replaced by an unfamiliar sense of order. Outside, he hears the three brothers moving their things. There’s a room at the back of the house with three small bedrooms, cramped, but clean enough. For people who have spent years drifting from one corner of the city to another, it might as well be a luxury.

Reth laughs as he claims the bed closest to the window. Harlan immediately starts wiping down the table, habit ingrained into him, while Kain leans against the doorframe, still glancing around as if half-expecting the place to vanish.

He closes the door to his room and sits on the edge of the bed. The dim lantern casts long shadows on the walls, shadows that twist and stretch like grasping bones.

Aiden exhales.

An assassin guild.

The words feel strange, but not wrong.

He stares at the empty space in front of him, where only he can see the translucent system screen flicker to life. In this world of cultivation, he is an anomaly, someone who walks a path that shouldn’t exist.

And yet, it’s his greatest advantage.

He thinks of contracts sealed in blood, of the dead rising to fulfill agreements the living never could. No betrayal. No hesitation. Only obedience.

Aiden lets out a quiet chuckle.

“Since I’m a necromancer,” he mutters to himself.

His gaze sharpens.

“And since I can summon the dead…”

The name comes to him naturally, as if it had been waiting all along.

“Bone Contract Hall.”

The words linger in the air, heavy and cold.

Aiden leans back, staring at the ceiling. It’s a ridiculous name. A dangerous one. But it fits, perfectly. In a world that devours the weak, he won’t pretend to be righteous.

The next step is simple, make the guild known.

No matter how sharp the blade or how terrifying the name, it means nothing if no one knows it exists. Without clients, Bone Contract Hall is just an idea, and Aiden has no intention of letting it stay that way. Luckily, he already has a plan.

But not today.

Today, he rests.

The next morning, Aiden wakes to the smell of food.

Not the stale kind from street stalls, but something warm and filling. When he steps out of his room, he sees Harlan standing over the stove, sleeves rolled up, while Reth sits at the table tearing into a piece of flatbread. Kaon is crouched near the doorway, sharpening a short blade out of habit.

“Boss, you’re up,” Harlan says without turning around. “Food’s ready.”

Aiden raises an eyebrow. “Already?”

Harlan grins. “Yes boss, I woke up early.”

They eat together in the main hall. The food is simple, meat, grains, and vegetables, but it’s cooked properly. Aiden finishes his bowl in silence, then sets it down.

“Alright,” he says, his tone shifting. “We’re working today.”

The three brothers straighten immediately.

“I’m going to make this guild known,” Aiden continues. “But not openly. No signs. No banners. We don’t attract attention that way.”

Reth frowns. “Then how will people find us?”

Aiden taps the table lightly. “By word of mouth. By rumors. And by results.”

He stands and walks to the center of the room.

“Today, we’re finding a second base,” he says. “A place in the heart of the city. Somewhere hidden, quiet, and easy to reach if you know where to look. That’s where we’ll receive clients.”

Kaon’s eyes narrow. “In the middle of the city? That’s gonna be hard boss.”

“It’s ok we have money,” Aiden replies calmly.

He looks at each of them in turn.

“You three will help scout. Back alleys, abandoned shops, sealed courtyards, any place people overlook. We don’t need it big. We need it discreet.”

The brothers exchange glances, excitement flickering across their faces. For the first time, this doesn’t feel like survival.

It feels like the beginning of something real.

After they finish eating, the three brothers don’t waste a second. They grab their weapons, throw on their worn cloaks, and head out together, already arguing about which alleys to check first.

Aiden watches them leave from the doorway.

“…Yeah,” he mutters to himself, “taking them in was the right call.”

Now he finally has people he can order around, people who won’t question him every step of the way. It’s inefficient to do everything yourself, and Aiden has never liked inefficiency.

Still, his gaze drifts to the coin pouch at his waist.

“But money’s going to be a problem,” he says quietly. “Three extra mouths to feed… this won’t last long.”

Gold disappears faster than mana.

That’s when the bounty crosses his mind.

The one with eighty gold coins. The man supposedly hiding in the mountains.

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